Oregon lawmakers have the opportunity this spring to approve paid family leave, a worker-funded insurance program that would cost pennies per paycheck.

This insurance might sound like a frill to those lucky few workers in Oregon with incredible benefits and recession-proof jobs, but it's a lifeline for everyone else.

It's also a gift to businesses that can't afford to provide paid leave on their own.

"We'd love to be able to offer this to our employees," says Sattie Clark, who co-owns a design and manufacturing company in Portland. She thinks paid family leave would reduce turnover. "We've been able to experience, on a first-hand basis, how good it is to have good people stay."

Under state law, people in Oregon who work for companies with at least 25 employees already are entitled to 12 weeks of unpaid leave for family or medical reasons. Paid family leave would piggyback on existing law, but with a few big differences, backers say.

For example, workers could use it only to care for a new baby or a seriously ill family member, not for their own health problems -- and not for intermittent sick days.

"The whole point of this," says state Sen. Diane Rosenbaum, a Portland Democrat and longtime advocate of paid leave, "is to be able to take care of a loved one who really needs you."

This week, Rosenbaum will begin hunting for co-sponsors for her family leave bill, which passed the House last session but got hung up in the Senate. Under her bill, workers in companies with at least 25 employees would pay 2 cents per hour into a self-sustaining fund. After six months, they'd be eligible for up to six weeks of paid leave at $300 per week.

More fine print: Unlike the workers' compensation program, there would be no additional costs for employers. Small businesses could opt in, but there's no mandate.

I think this whole idea is brilliantly pragmatic. For one thing, it reflects workplace reality. Most young families rely on two paychecks to make ends meet. Unpaid leave can compel new moms to return to work too early -- or quit their jobs, increasing turnover. At the same time, middle-aged workers are facing their own health problems while also tending to elderly parents.

More households lack the cushion these days, both in time and money, to adjust to a family emergency. That's nerve-wracking in any economy.

I'd like to see the program tightened up slightly to control costs and limit abuse -- even if that means shrinking the benefit. A lifetime limit of 12 weeks of paid benefits, for example, would discourage frequent fliers. Also, dropping the charge to 1 cent an hour would reduce the annual cost for full-time workers to only $21.

That's a great premium for an insurance policy you're almost certain to use.

Life clicks along fine, most of the time. You go to work, you go home, and things balance out. But a few times over the decades, the wheels come off. A new baby or a very sick spouse changes everything. A parent needs you, and you can't say no.